End Game
by LuckyBlackCat
Summary: It's been seven years since Mai lost her soul to Dartz and she hasn't seen Jounouchi since. When she realises she needs to return to Japan, she decides to arrange to meet him. She tells herself it's for closure, but she knows the truth is more complicated. All of the polarshipping.


**A/N When I was 15 I wanted to write polarshipping. I wanted to write it so bad. It was my ship before I knew what shipping even was.**

 **After seven years, this stupid ship still drags me back. Because it's been so long my characterisation might suck so sorry about that but hopefully there are still some polarshippers out there who might enjoy this.**

 **XxX**

 **Part One**

It's been seven years since Mai last went to Japan. As she steps off the plane, everything feels the same but different. She is surrounded by billboards that contain the faces of duelists she doesn't know wielding duel discs she's never even seen in real life. Those days when Yugi Muto was the King of Games feel dim and distant- there's been countless duelists who've held the title since. Each one has had a newer, cooler hairstyle and newer, cooler deck crafted from newer, cooler monsters. When the Dark Magician or the Blue Eyes White Dragon appear, they are seen as old, retro, only there for fan service.

Mai sighs as she waits for her luggage. She hasn't brought much, just a handbag and a backpack. She isn't planning on staying for long- that's one thing that hasn't changed about her. Her presence anywhere is transient- she comes, she plays, she leaves. Even when people welcome her, even when little girls clutching duel discs tell her she's everything they ever want to be, she can never settle.

Even though she's scrimped and saved and tried whatever else she can to survive-if you want to earn a living as a duelist, Japan is where you need to be. The game is no longer as popular in America or even in Europe. Where once she played to win great fortunes, now she just plays to pay for bed and board. The rest of what fuels her is love for the stupid, ridiculous game that she used to be good at and the friendships she's made because of it.

And then there's the friendships she's lost, the ones that burned brighter than any she's had before or since and all because she was stupid and lonely and selfish and-

Maybe she still is, or she wouldn't even be here.

Without thinking, she strides out of the airport and starts looking for buses. But not after she gives the taxi rank a longing look.

The Domino bus has seen better days but that's fine. It takes a winding route into the centre of Domino and she catches glimpses of kids in the same uniform that Yugi and Jounouchi used to wear on their way home from school. They're all walking around glued to their phones which reminds her-

She hasn't checked hers since she arrived. She turns it on and after a couple of minutes there's a text waiting for her, sent a few minutes ago.

 _Jounouchi: Are you still coming?_

 _Mai: Bus was late. Getting there, sorry._

 _Jounouchi: … typing_

 _Jounouchi: OK. Im waiting._

Before she even realises what's happening, she's crying. It's stupid and futile and she knows she looks like a crazy woman, a foreigner alone weeping on a bus, but maybe if she does it all now, she won't do it later. She doesn't want to cry in front of Jounouchi.

The bus pulls into central Domino, right as she's fixing her mascara. She gives herself one last once over in her compact mirror and then shoves it back in her handbag. The Mai Kujaku of seven years ago wouldn't have recognised herself. Her hair is scraped back, her makeup is minimal and she's wearing jeans and a loose blouse.

Mai thanks the bus driver and steps out into the city. The air feels different to what she remembers but it mostly looks the same. KC logos blaze at her from every angle because Domino is still the capital of Duel Monsters and Kaiba still owns most of it. Her hand goes to her bag, carefully feeling the shape of her deck inside, checking it's still there. She carries it most places but it's extremely important she has it with her today.

Then she begins to search for the place Jounouchi asked her to meet in. She scribbled down his directions in a hurry and struggles to interpret her own handwriting. The city is livelier than ever and there are signs of Duel Monsters everywhere she looks. Eventually she finds the place, tucked away in a side street. It looks like a café purpose built for gamers but with none of the showy holograms or technology that Kaiba Corp sells. This place is made for crumpled duel mats, creased cards and life points tallied on the back of old receipts.

It's _perfect_ and the fact Jounouchi picked it makes her heart leap a little. Although, that's not the only reason. Mai can't remember the last time she felt this nervous.

XxX

The inside of the shop is the right medium between quiet and busy. There are people of all ages playing- from seven to seventy. They sit in clusters, some holding rulebooks and arguing, some winning, some losing. There are some spectating too, friends and siblings and parents scratching their heads and sipping teas and coffees as their loved ones duke it out.

No one is sitting alone.

Mai feels at a loose end. Wasn't Jounouchi already here? She reaches for her phone but then she feels a hand on her shoulder and she turns.

Jounouchi looks younger than on social media but maybe that's because he's smiling at her the same way he used to when he was a teenager.

"Mai!"

Before she has time for a proper look, he sweeps her up into a tight hug. She returns it, trying not to remember what it was like the last time she held him. His hand clutches the back of her head and she feels strands of her hair escape from the bun she's tucked it into.

"I'm really, really mad at you," he says in her ear. "Like, really, really mad."

Mai stiffens and he lets her go.

"I know," she says. "I-"

Then she becomes aware that they have an audience- some people have even stopped duelling to have a good gawp. Well. They _are_ standing in the middle of a quiet-ish café.

"Let's go somewhere more private," says Jounouchi and he tugs her by the hand with a new confidence she's never seen in him before.

XxX

The place Jounouchi drags her to is the café staff room and she's about to ask whether this is OK, even if he is a regular customer, when she sees his picture on the wall with caption.

Jounouchi Katsuya, Duel Monsters Expert.

Underneath that there's a list of names and times but she can see that this afternoon has been left empty.

"Oh," says Jounouchi, following her gaze. "Yeah. I work here."

"Here?" she asks, forehead creasing.

"Yep," he says, lifting his chin proudly. "I teach people how to duel. Mostly kids but some teens, a couple of elderly people. Can you believe that there are people even more terrible than I used to be?"

"That does seem hard to believe," she says. She can't help it, he's handed it to her on a plate.

"That's more like the Mai I remember," he says. "This quiet, polite thing you have going on doesn't suit you, you know?"

"So if I'd come in all guns blazing, demanding you duel me again then-?"

"Hey, as long as you didn't try and take my soul again I would have gone with it," he says. "Sure, why not?"

At this, she laughs but it's nervous and sad. "You shouldn't even be talking to me after what I did," she says. "You should have just ignored me."

"Stop telling me what to do," he chastises her. "I'm a _grown up_. And anyway, you know I could never ignore you."

Jounouchi pulls out a chair for her and she sits down. He offers her coffee and cake. She accepts the coffee and declines the cake, so he takes the extra slice for his own plate. Mai smiles. Something about this feels _right_. She relaxes a little.

"Jounouchi," she says, after he sets down her coffee. "Stop stalling. Let's duel."

"What's in it for me?" he says, even though he's already agreed to the duel beforehand. He's playing with her and despite everything she finds herself enjoying it.

Mai considers, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "A kiss," she eventually says.

Something sparks in Jounouchi's eyes.

The game is on.

 **Part Two**

Jounouchi has beaten her two games to one. Mai looks at the table and it's a mess, the graveyard is threatening to spill into both their decks and her defeated Harpie Ladies are still on her side of the field, stuck cowering before Red Eyes Black Dragon.

"I still can't win," she says but she doesn't take the defeat bitterly. In fact, she's had something she wasn't expecting; _fun_.

Back in the day, she'd dismissed everything Yugi and Jounouchi had tried to tell her about the heart of the cards and communicating the way you felt towards someone through the game. To her younger self, the game had just been a game. You won, you lost and that was that. But now she understands what they meant. In their duel, the years between her and Jounouchi had disappeared until they were just two friends enjoying the game together.

Jounouchi laughs. "I'm clearly just too good," he says. "Too bad there's not room for a victory dance."

"You really haven't changed," she says.

"That last game was close, though. I'd say you can still hold your own." He grins at her. "Ready to claim your prize?"

"Jounouchi, you won," Mai says, puzzled.

"You won a game too," he said. He rises a little, leans across the table and before she can ask what he's doing, he kisses her forehead. It's a little clumsy- she can see his hands trembling. As for her, her eyebrow twitches and she can feel herself turning red. Jounouchi watches her reaction with both anxiety and amusement and she has never wanted to slap someone silly more and-

"Come here," she growls and she reaches over and yanks him by the collar. He makes a little noise of surprise but when she kisses him on the lips, twice, he goes completely quiet. The movement as they sit back jogs the table and suddenly there are Duel Monsters cards falling every which way.

Mai sighs and starts gathering them up, the wood panel cold against her knees as she crouches. Jounouchi hasn't moved. Perhaps everything's happening too fast for his brain to process and for once she can't blame him.

"Mai, stop," Jounouchi says, his voice suddenly serious. "Just- just talk to me."

For once, she does as he says. This is what she came to do, after all.

Carefully, she looks him in the eye. Takes a deep breath and begins what she's practiced by herself over and over again.

"I'm sorry, Jounouchi. I'm sorry for what I did while I was working for Dartz. I regret it every day. I regret that I hurt you when you've only ever tried to be a friend to me. If I could go back in time and take it back then I would!"

"I know," he says, which surprises her. "I don't want to talk about that. It doesn't matter. I want to talk about the seven years that you didn't come back-"

"How can you say that it- it doesn't matter. It matters to _me_!" Mai loathes her voice for breaking. "That I could do that to someone- someone I _loved_."

There was a brief silence.

"'Loved'," says Jounouchi.

Mai bit her lip, hard. She hadn't meant to let that slip. Or had she?

"OK," says Jounouchi. "I'm going to- to show my hand too." He takes a breath. "I feel like we have unfinished business so I'm not saying it's gonna be easy and I'm not even sure it's the right thing, I'm pretty sure it's way too fast and all that but do you want to try-?"

"Try?"

"Being together?"

Mai does and yet she's still worried. What she has to offer- is that enough for someone like Jounouchi? And yet when she's with him, right now, she's reminded that although she's been thinking of him as a hero, he's also still human. Just like she is. Although she doesn't know if she can stay in Domino or even in Japan, she wants someone to come back to, a place to go home to and that could be Jounouchi. _Should_ be Jounouchi.

"I want you," she says.

Jounouchi looks at her like she's just done done a triple backward somersault. Something catches in her throat. It's endearing.

"This is the part where you kiss me," she says, nudging him with her foot. "And tell me everything's going to be OK."

"So bossy," mutters Jounouchi.

He does as she says, even if he takes his sweet time about it.

It's the first time for Mai that a kiss has felt like it means 'I want you forever' instead of 'I want you for now'.

The noise from the café permeates the silence and she looks down over Jou's shoulder at the Duel Monsters cards still scattered on the table. Strange how something as innocuous as children's card game has given her what she's always wanted- a place to belong.

XxX


End file.
